USAID whistleblowers say it was worse than people knew

When the billionaire Elon Musk So called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) After the government was overrun in the first months of 2025, there was one agency that felt the full force of the group’s desire to move quickly and break things: United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

DOGE’s mandate was to cut government contracts and spending in a futile effort to reduce the federal deficit by $2 trillion. On January 28, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued waiver For “life-saving humanitarian assistance,” which should have allowed the continued flow of funds for vital projects. But according to Nicholas Enrich, who was then acting associate director for global health, this did not happen.

By early February, the group had seized control of the agency, shut down its emails, and left tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid funding in limbo. Within days, agency staff Pieces from 10,000 to 300and by July the agency was as well It was merged with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to Boston University estimates. More than 700,000 people died In the first year following the funding cuts, Democrats in Congress announced a plan Death investigation.

Enrich, who oversaw USAID projects that helped prevent the spread of diseases like malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis in countries around the world, was so disturbed by what he saw of DOGE’s takeover of the agency that he became executive director. Whistleblowers. In his new book about the fall of USAID: In a wood cutting machineEnrich describes how he saw DOGE leading the complete destruction of USAID.

“Not only were these people ignorant of global health and international development, they didn’t know how government worked,” Enrich says. “So when they encounter obstacles, they go around in a circle and have no idea who to talk to and where to go.”

WIRED spoke to Enrich about his experience during the DOGE takeover, the division between Trump administration political appointees and the DOGE team, the quieter effects of the USAID shutdown, and the way conspiracy theories have shaped how the agency is viewed.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Wired: What does a USAID shutdown look like in practice?

Nicholas Ithra: As of February 3, 2025, we are starting to lose access to our emails and systems. We had no idea if that meant putting people on administrative leave or what.

At the same time, there was an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and responding to it was a priority for USAID’s National Security Council. And I was saying to these political appointees, you know, “You’ve just taken everyone out of the system that might be needed to respond to this.” And they would respond to me and say, “Oh, no, I’m so sorry. This is DOGE. DOGE isolates people.” And then we have to go back to them and tell them one by one who we want to wear again.

Joel Burkert, a Trump administration political appointee and the agency’s chief of staff, has often complained about how DOGE was undermining his efforts to seamlessly shut down our agency. I was in a meeting with all these political appointees and a few others, and I was trying to explain to them what USAID had done in global health. This was of course after half the staff had been fired or placed on administrative leave. One of the things I mentioned is that by freezing our malaria control program before the rainy season starts in some of the countries with the highest malaria burdens, the fact that we’re not able to do the things we normally do to prepare — distributing mosquito nets, indoor spraying — will set us back years in terms of controlling malaria, which is one of the number one killers of children under five around the world.